True Grit: America's daring ironworkers walk the girders just like their forefathers as they rebuild at Ground Zero

By Mail Foreign Service

An ironworker walks on a beam at One World Trade Center construction site yesterday in New York


It is a symbol of blue-collar America at its very best.

The daring ironworker strides confidently across a foot-wide steel girder, hundreds of dizzying feet above the ground.

The images echo the famous 1932 picture of the riveters balanced vertiginously above the city streets while they ate the lunch during the building of the Rockefeller Centre.

But these incredible pictures were taken yesterday as work got underway on the first office block at Ground Zero in New York.


Head for heights: An ironworker, top, walks on a beam as he guides another beam suspended from a crane at the site


Construction is already under way on World Trade Center, as well as a September 11th memorial and a transport hub, but other planned skyscrapers have been stalled in a 16-month stalemate over money.

Now a proposed agreement will allow four office towers to be built, although one will be delayed indefinitely because of the poor economy.

The arrangement was announced by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey following a board meeting yesterday
'We are in a position where the parties are all on the same page,' Port Authority Chairman Anthony Coscia said.

The parties will have 120 days to negotiate details of the deal announced Thursday.

The agreement will then be presented to the Port Authority board for final approval.

Under the tentative deal, the Port Authority would finance the second tower at the site, a 64-story building to be completed in 2013. The city and Port Authority have already agreed to rent space in the building.


One World Trade Center, also known as the Freedom Tower, is under construction by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey after a 16-month stalemate was overcome


World Trade Center Tower 4, centre left, under construction by developer Larry Silverstein, rises next to an open pit where he hopes to build two additional towers


Developer Larry Silverstein would have to raise $300 million in cash to build a third office tower at the site.

New York City, New York state and the Port Authority would provide $600 million in backup financing if Silverstein first secures commitments to lease 400,000 square feet.

Silverstein said in a statement: 'Today's agreement between my company and the Port Authority will accelerate the rebuilding of the World Trade Center. This is great news for New York.'

The fourth office building at the site would be built up to street level so the lot will be ready for Silverstein to put a tower there when and if the commercial real estate market recovers.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised the deal.

'First, this is great news for our city's economy, and it really will spur our continued recovery from the national recession,' Bloomberg said. 'It means that in very short order, thousands of electricians, operating engineers and others in our still hard-hit construction industry will be at work on the eastern portion of the World Trade Center site.'

New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose district includes the trade center site, also touted the agreement.

'It is a great statement that we will rebuild lower Manhattan,' Silver said, adding, 'I think it's a deal that works for everybody. The taxpayers are protected.'


Workmen relax and eat their lunch on a girder at the Rockefeller Centre in New York in the famous photo 'Lunch Atop A Skyscraper' by Charles Ebbets taken in 1932


While the details of the plan still have to be worked out, officials hailed it as a breakthrough in ending the delays and uncertainty that have bedeviled the project for years, despite the sense of priority and symbolism invested in it.

'For a long time, everybody thought this was never going to get done,' Bloomberg said. 'It is very difficult to get everybody on the same page, but I think now we are really making progress.'

Plans for Silverstein's skyscrapers bogged down, and the Port Authority clashed over the project's timing and financing.

Silverstein, who has paid billions of dollars in rent to the Port Authority since 2001, said the agency wasn't building its part of the project on time, throwing off the timing and financing for his buildings in a tough real estate market.


source: dailymail